Yellow Star Symbol
The Germans made it mandatory for Jewish people to wear a yellow star on their clothing so that they could be identified without looking at their papers. The star was a symbol of their religion but it also became a symbol of anti-semitism, in that it became easier for them to be identified by anti-Semites, and it was also a symbol of danger, because by identifying themselves as Jews in this way they were always in danger of being taken away by the Gestapo for no reason other than the yellow star on their jacket.
Michael as a Symbol
The author himself became a symbol of both the liberation, and the horror of what had taken place at Auschwitz. A photograph of Michael in his grandmother's arms, watched by a Russian soldier participating in the liberation of the camp, was seen around the world, and as a little boy he became a symbol of hope, because he had been rescued, and also a symbol of family, because the oder generation and the younger generation had somehow managed to get out alive together.
Stiped Uniforms Symbol
Every prisoner was given a striped shirt and pants to wear at the camp, and this was what they wore day and night for the entire duration of their imprisonment. These uniforms became a symbol of the camps themselves but also a symbol of the conditions there; the uniforms, which had been the correct size for each prisoner when he or she arrived, hung like loose skin by the time they had been imprisoned for a short time, due to lack of food and sustenance.
Family Motif
The motif of family and the importance of it is a constant throughout the book. Even the authorship of the book is another testament to family, in that Michael's daughter is his co-author as well. The Bornsteins were a close family, and remained so both in the camp and after the liberation. Although not all survived, those who did all protected each other and it was only through the closeness of the family and their love that Michael survived at all.
Polish Anti Semitism Motif
Given that the architects of the Final Solution were the Germans, it is easy to overlook the role played in the Holocaust by other nations; Bornstein and his family were Polish and one of the motifs in the book is the anti-Semitism in Poland that was still rampant even after the end of the war. The vast majority of Polish citizens turned a blind eye to what the occupying German army were doing all around them, and many collaborated by turning over Jewish neighbors to them. Whilst their Jewish neighbors were imprisoned in the death camps, they took over their homes, living in them as if they were their own, but after the liberation when the home owners returned they refused to move out of the homes they were now occupying. There was still a great deal of hate towards Jewish people within Poland and this did not end when the war did. It is one of the constant motifs in the book.
